


Adventures in Architectural Alchemy

by hunters_retreat



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, First Kiss, M/M, Modern AU with Alchemy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-10
Updated: 2019-03-10
Packaged: 2019-11-15 03:04:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18065375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hunters_retreat/pseuds/hunters_retreat
Summary: There were two things Ed knew about Roy Mustang.   One.  The man never let anything go.  Two.  The only way to win an argument was to leave it.





	Adventures in Architectural Alchemy

**Author's Note:**

> I asked my daughter for a prompt. She gave me “Look at this. It’s freakin’ Bats. I love Halloween.” Beta'd by the awesome tinyinsignificanthumans!

 

 

“Look at this.  It’s freakin’ Bats.  I love Halloween.”

Alphonse stared at him for a minute, then buried his head in his hands and groaned.  “Brother, please tell me you didn’t add bats to the entire building because of a vine you watched.”

“What?” Ed crossed his arms over his chest and looked up at the storefront.  “The building is being rented out by a Halloween store.  Like they’re going to complain if I change the architecture a little.”

“The partners might.”

Ed Elric was the most sought-after Construction-Alchemist in the world and the partners of Alche-tecture LLP full well knew it.  They wouldn’t say anything about his improvisational additions.  At least, not until the building’s true owners came in to set up residence once the new year hit.  A problem in the furnishings department left the new company a month behind schedule, a finished building that was unpopulated, and rent to meet until they could get into their new offices.  So, renting out the first floor to the Halloween store had been a compromise offered somewhere down the line to make back some cash.

Ed only knew about all that because he’d been asked by his pseudo-supervisor to come by and make sure the last of the contractors had finished the electric and plumbing, before finishing the interior walls with alchemy. 

“No, the partners won’t say anything,” Ed said.  “The only person who might would be-”

“I thought you were just adding the interior walls, Elric?”

Ed turned around quickly to glare at the newcomer.  Roy Mustang looked at the building, his hands in the pockets of his dark pants.  He’d lost the tie somewhere between the office and the site and he’d unbuttoned the top few buttons to reveal a long graceful neck.  His dark hair was artfully tossed and Ed really wanted to know what it would look like if he ran his hands through it.  Roy turned to Ed, his dark eyes looked down in obvious disapproval, but there was a quirk to his mouth that said he wasn’t as upset about Ed’s improvised additions as his words and tone would lead him to believe.  “Just because you lack the imagination to do it yourself, doesn’t mean you have to hate on my skills.”

“I have the decency to leave our client’s buildings structurally intact and artistically tasteful.  It is a good thing you are, indeed, skilled, because your taste is appalling.  It’s no wonder they always send me out to fix your… additions.”

“Shut up, Mustang,” Ed said as he crossed his arms over his chest.  The right ached.  He’d had to get a new replacement for his prosthesis a month back and his body was still learning to compensate for the extra movement and speed he had with the upgrade. 

He was thankful that Dr. Rockbell had taken him as a patient but Winry was never exactly gentle in her checkups and her bedside manner was atrocious.  Alphonse said it was because they’d grown up together.  Mustang said it was because her manners mirrored his own.

Stupid Mustang.

“The partners will make you come back out and fix this in a month.  Why go through the effort?” Mustang asked.

Ed thought Mustang was just curious.  It wasn’t always snark and banter – though it usually was – but sometimes he thought Mustang wanted to understand.  It always made Ed feel uneasy. 

Like the nights he’d get a random text asking if he’d seen the latest news about some alchemy experiment, or the times Mustang would show up with food and a stack of books and they’d spend the night debating alchemic theory.

Ed just didn’t get him.  They worked together.  In fact, Mustang was a Junior Partner at the alchemy firm and as close to a supervisor as Ed got.  When Ed was in a generous mood, he might even admit that it was a toss up which one of them was the most requested alchemist in their field. 

At first, their relationship had been fairly antagonistic.  Ed had come straight from the University, too young and headstrong to stop making rookie mistakes without a hand to guide him.  Mustang had learned his trade in the trenches, a construction alchemist in the army who used his military funds to get his architectural alchemy degree in half the time it was supposed to take.

Both considered geniuses.  Both egotistic and stubborn.  Who in their right mind would have ever thought they could manage to work so well together?

“You know, if you don’t like it,” Ed said to Mustang, “you could always fix it yourself.” 

“I think I’ll hold off,” Mustang said with a crooked smile.  It was a real smile, not the pretty one he showed for the camera when the paparazzi found them.  And yes, pretty.  Ed could say plenty about Mustang’s faults, but it sure wasn’t the view on the eyes.

“Why’s that?”

“Maes will want to come see it.  After he gets a couple photos of it, I’m sure the Partners will get a phone call.”

Ed rolled his eyes.  Speaking of paparazzi.  Maes was a good man who had a loving wife and beautiful daughter.  And an unhealthy love of his camera.  “Why are you friends with him again?”

“Why are you?”

“I just like Gracia’s cooking,” Ed defended.  Maes Hughes was Ed’s next-door neighbor and he’d helped Ed and Alphonse when they first moved to the city and didn’t know anything.  It was just dumb luck that he was best friends with Mustang. 

“Brother, I’m going to run into the bookstore down the street,” Alphonse called out.  Ed waved him off because it wasn’t like he thought he could keep him from it.  They had a shared book collection and the owner of the used book store down the street had called Al to tell him about something he thought Al would like.

Besides, Al kept threatening to talk to Mustang about his crush.  Which wasn’t a crush.  Just because Ed admired the way Mustang looked, all dressed up at the opening of one of their buildings, didn’t mean he was in love with the guy or anything. 

“Have fun, Alphonse,” Mustang called out to his brother. Alphonse waved back at him and Mustang smiled.

“Would you stop flirting with my brother?” Ed demanded.

Mustang rolled his eyes.  “I would hardly call wishing him the best, flirting.”

“Yeah, well, that’s because flirting is breathing to you.  Automatic and you don’t even realize you’re doing it.”

Mustang smiled at him.  “Possibly.  You wouldn’t be the first person to point it out, but it’s only harmless flirting.”

“So, stop doing it with my brother!”

Mustang’s smile grew wider and he leaned closer to Ed.  “Would you prefer I flirt with someone else?” 

Ed glared at Mustang but even as he did, he could feel heat flush his face at the thought of Mustang showing him any sort of romantic attention.

“Why, Edward, I didn’t know you cared,” Mustang said as his smile turned soft and his voice grew softer. 

“I don’t, Bastard,” he said as he stalked off after his brother.

There were two things Ed knew about Roy Mustang.   One.  The man never let anything go.  Two.  The only way to win an argument was to leave it.

 

***

 

“Where are you going Alphonse?” Ed asked.  They’d barely made it home before Al got a call on his cell and was heading right back out.

“Maes called.  Elysia wanted me to come over and help with her homework, apparently.”

“I could come too,” Ed offered.

“Oh, no, that’s okay,” Alphonse raised his arm over his head and scratched lightly at the back of his neck.  “I’m pretty sure I’ve got elementary school math covered,” he said with a quick half-grin.  A grin that meant something was up.

A knock at the door followed right on the heels of Al’s answer and Ed frowned at the timing.   

Alphonse jumped and let out a nervous laugh.  “Oh, well, I’ll just go check the door and then be off.”

Ed finished carrying the stack of books from their impromptu splurge into the office and dropped them on the table.   He was about to go to the front - because he wasn’t about to trust his brother at the moment – when Mustang showed up at the other end of the hallway.

“What the hell are you doing here?”

Mustang looked almost apologetic as he stood in the hallway with his hands behind his back.  “I might have done something a little rash.”

“Like what?”

“I was talking to Maes-”

“That’s always dangerous.  The guy has a twisted sense of humor.”  Ed wasn’t sure why he hadn’t kicked Mustang out yet, but the times that Mustang had come over before had all ended interestingly enough so he was willing to give him a little leeway. 

“Yeah.”

Mustang was acting odd though.  His cocky grin was gone and instead his eyes flittered nervously around.  He licked his lips and seemed to be unable to find his next words.  Mustang shuffled his feet and Ed saw that he was actually holding something in his hands.  “What are you hiding?”

“What?”

“Behind your back.”

“Nothing.”

“You have something behind your back,” Ed pointed.

“Yes, I know I have something behind my back,” Roy sighed heavily.  “I’m not hiding it.  I just haven’t…. shown it yet.”

“Are you planning to anytime soon?”  Ed didn’t know what this was about and he didn’t like it.  He wasn’t a fan of surprises.  In his lifetime, they usually turned out bad.  Paired with Mustang’s unusual behavior, Ed really didn’t like this. 

“That’s where I might have been a little rash.  But you understand, there was innocent flirting involved and then maybe some coy questioning and an angry stomp off and some possibly spying before purchases were made in the heat of the moment.”

“Spying?”

Mustang held out a book that was still wrapped in the used bookstore’s plastic bag. 

“What is this?”

“I was a bit … callous … earlier.  I wanted to make up for it.”

“You’re always an ass.  What makes this any different?”

“Because we banter and we tease but it’s never been real.  I would never make fun of you.  Or … your feelings on purpose.”

Ed felt his face flush for the second time in the last two hours and he was about to let loose with his tongue before Mustang unwrapped the book.

“Holy hell.  Where did you get that?”

“The same bookstore you and Al visited.  I know the owner as well.  He’s been keeping an eye on this for me for a while.  I was going to save it for your birthday.  Or maybe Christmas.  He just got it in and considering what happened, I thought… now.”

Ed stared at the book in awe for a moment.  It was said that somewhere down the family tree, the Elrics had been the creators of alchemy as the world knew it.  That somewhere in the past, his family had been the key to the very force Ed conjured so well.

It was whispered in the darkest corners of family gatherings, that alchemy had started as something much more horrific and that the Elrics had taken it and cleansed it, but that the belief in a stone that could make one immortal, that could bring the dead back to life, had given Ed’s own father life far longer than it should have.

Those rumors had given birth to Ed’s most tragic and reprehensible use of alchemy when he was only 11. 

The book in his hands was one of only 17 copies of what was supposedly the handwritten journal of Van Hohenheim of the Light.  The hidden name of the man Ed called father.

“I…” he wanted the book more than he’d ever wanted any.  “I’ll pay you back.”

It cost a fortune but Ed had the money.  Architectural alchemy paid well.

“It’s a gift.”

“Mustang, I can’t accept this.”

“You can.  I insist.”

“Why?  Why would you-”

“Don’t you understand?” Mustang said with a slight huff.  “The only person I don’t flirt with is you.  I couldn’t bear the rejection if you said no.”

Ed’s eyes widened as he stared at the man in front of him.  Mustang licked his lips and Ed couldn’t help but track the motion.  Without thought, he took a step closer.

Mustang had a hand on his face suddenly, tipping Ed’s face up and his lips were a breath away when Ed pushed up into him.  Into this.

Heat spread over him in waves, like the press of fire all around, stealing his breath.  Roy was the only thing keeping him standing and he felt his body pushed back against the wall, the book’s spine jabbing at his stomach.  He moaned into the kiss and pulled Roy closer instead of complaining. 

Little by little, Roy gentled the passion between them, until he could pull back enough to look Ed in the eye without being chased for one more kiss.  Ed stared up at him, completely lost at what to do now.

“I’ve wanted to kiss you since the first time you called me a bastard,” Roy confessed.

Ed smiled.  “That was the day we met.”

“It was.  Maes invited me to dinner to meet his new next-door neighbors.  I was more than a little surprised to walk into his front room and hear ‘That’s the bastard I was telling you about from work!’.”

“You didn’t have to be such a bastard.”

“You didn’t have to be such a pain in the ass.”

Ed smiled as he dropped his head to rest on Roy’s shoulder for no other reason that it felt good to be that close to him.  Something he’d been denying for the three years they’d been working together.

Roy let him for a few minutes.  “So, Maes apparently called your brother to tell him to leave the house for the night.  What do you think we should do while he’s gone?”

Ed let out a laugh as he looked up at Roy.  “Oh, I’ve got some ideas.”  Ed grabbed his hand and pulled him down the hall and towards the bedroom. 

Roy stopped him in the doorway though.  “Before this goes any further, I do have to tell you I got a phone call on the way over.”

Ed waited.

“Go back in the morning and get rid of the damn bats.”

Ed smiled as he pulled Roy into the room.  “Sure thing.  It’ll look better with gargoyles anyway.”

 


End file.
